Never Get On My Bad Side
by Chellerbelle
Summary: Prequel to "I Make Men Weak at the Knees" - you don't need to read the original story first. Rogue's life after leaving the X-men and before meeting Gambit: Stealing, motorcycles, the 'cure' wearing off and a teddy bear.
1. Chapter 1

This is a prequel to **I Make Men Weak at the Knees** and was written after **Queen of Identify Fraud**. It was inspired by a comment in the first chapter of **I Make Men Weak at the Knees** wherein a brief explanation was given for how Rogue was able to get her powers under control. I thought it might be interesting to explore that further. You do not need to read either of the two previous stories to enjoy this, although you _might_ miss some in-jokes. Maybe. I think I'm too close to tell whether it's better in chronological order or publishing order. Anyway.

Also, I'm planning on removing all accents from this series. I've started work on **King of Thieves** and realised that there are more "accented" characters than not, thus making writing in accents completely pointless and redundant.

**Disclaimer #1: **Not associated with Marvel...

**Disclaimer #2: **I don't condone becoming a career criminal, nor am I involved with the law on either side on any country. I've done as much research as I can, but there are certain things you can't find through google, heh.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Rogue opened the door and all time seemed to stop.

Clothes were strewn across the floor of the room she shared with Kitty. The covers on Kitty's bed were half falling off, no doubt due to the exertions of the two naked bodies tangled up together on top. Kitty's exuberant cry of "Bobby" penetrated Rogue's mind and time sped up again. Rogue clenched her jaw as Bobby's eyes met hers.

"Rogue –" Bobby began.

But Rogue had already turned and shut the door firmly behind her. With a long stride she walked with increasing speed to the garage. She felt like the world was closing in on her. She needed to get out. She had to get out.

Rogue arrived at the garage and grabbed the keys to one of the motorcycles. As soon as the garage door was lifted high enough, she rocketed out of there, slowing down only long enough to get through the school gates. She pushed the motorcycle to its limit, disregarding all sense of speed limits or safety. Her destination: anywhere but here.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins and she began to laugh from the sheer thrill. The image of Kitty and Bobby was flung to the back of her mind and laid temporarily forgotten.

How long Rogue drove for, she had no idea. At one point, however, she happened to glance at the fuel gauge. In her rush to get out she hadn't thought to check it before she left and fill up, and now she was edging towards empty. She should probably turn around, but the idea of returning to the mansion made her feel sick.

Eventually she had no choice but to pull over. Rogue left the motorcycle by the side of the road and began to walk. She couldn't go back there. She could picture everyone's reactions all so well. Kitty and Bobby with their insincere apologies "we didn't mean for this to happen". Everyone else whispering behind her back and pitying her.

If they hadn't been already.

Just how long had this been going on anyway? Rogue knew her boyfriend and her room mate had gotten a little friendly prior to her getting the 'cure', but she didn't think anything had come of it. Nothing like _that_ anyway. Had it been going on all this time? Did everyone know except her?

Rogue clenched her fists and pressed her lips together as she stalked angrily down the side of the road. It was at that every moment that Rogue heard her phone ring. She pulled it out and Bobby's name appeared on the screen. Her grip tightened and had she been able to, she would have cracked it. Instead she gained a moment of satisfaction by hurling it into a nearby tree and leaving it behind her.

It was rather dark by the time that Rogue made it to the bank machine with every intention of withdrawing every dollar she had. She would not make it easy for the X-men to find her; if they even cared that she left. She put all her money, bar a few small notes, into her purse and tucked that neatly away into the inside pocket of her jacket.

Her next stop was for dinner, as Rogue had abruptly realised just how hungry she was. She walked to and ate in a nearby KFC and as she finished the last of her chicken, contemplated her next stop. She supposed she should find a place to stay for the night, but she wasn't really tired and she didn't want to spend any more money than she had to right now.

Still, for lack of a better option, Rogue left the KFC and started keeping her eyes peeled for a cheap inn. Chances were by the time she found one she probably would be tired. Her walk led her past a bar just as a couple of motorcycles drove away. Another rider was clearly planning on departing himself when he spotted her.

"Hey there sweetheart," he said, making no attempt to disguise his eyes raking across her body.

Rogue ignored him and continued walking by. Evidentially the man didn't like this, for the next words out of his mouth were: "Don't ignore me, bitch." This, of course, only gave Rogue more incentive to ignore him. Determined, the man caught her arm.

"It's not nice to walk away in the middle of the conversation," he admonished her.

"Let go of my arm," Rogue replied coldly

She really wasn't in the mood for this.

"Now why," he asked as he pulled her into him, "would I want to do a thing like that?"

Before he could move his free hand where he really wanted to put it, however, the man found himself on the ground, swearing and clutching his groin where Rogue and neatly kneed him.

"That's why," she replied blandly.

Once again she started to walk away, but the man managed to grab her ankle and tried to pull her down. Rogue hadn't spent all those years training to be taken down so easily, however. She caught herself before she could fall, twisted on the spot and kicked at his face. Her boot met his nose. There was a sickening crack and a cry of "you bitch, you broke my nose!"

"You'll get over it," Rogue replied.

She walked away from him a few paces before finally turning her back. She heard him pick himself up, run towards her and she side-stepped just moment before he could tackle her. She grabbed his back as she staggered forward, whirled him around and rammed him into a brick wall.

"You have picked the worst possible night to get on my nerves," Rogue said, her voice low and dangerous. "You should have just let me go, but didja? Noooo. You had to just force the issue, didntcha? So now I'm asking myself, just how many other women have you pulled this act on, hmm?"

The fight that followed wasn't really much of anything to speak of. Evidentially the man wasn't used to having his own strength and momentum used against him, and in only a couple of minutes he was unconscious and bleeding on the ground. Rogue hesitated for a moment, and then pulled out his wallet. There wasn't much cash in there, but what little he did have Rogue took. Her eyes then fell on his keys. She looked at them, then back at his motorcycle and then back at the keys again. She snatched them up and made her way over to his ride.

"Thanks," she said. "I will accept this as compensation for my trouble."

Rogue turned it on and was rather pleased when she realised the fuel tank was pretty much full. Good. She'd ride this bike until she read empty.

* * *

Rogue awoke with the dawn the next morning and wondered why she was sleeping in underbrush just out of plain view of the road. It took her a few minutes before she remembered the events of the day before; walking in on her boyfriend cheating on her with her roommate, taking off with the school's motorcycle and abandoning it at the side of the road, taking all her money and then robbing that jerk who'd obviously intended on having his way with her. Rogue allowed herself a slight smirk at the knowledge that she didn't need her powers to knock someone out. Then, sometime in the wee hours of the morning she had pulled over to sleep, but she could only vaguely remember doing that.

Her eyes fell on the stolen motorcycle and Rogue let out a long, slow breath. She could scarcely believe she had actually done that, and yet the proof stood before her. There had been a few times in between running away from her foster family and joining the X-men when her powers first manifested that she had stolen, usually when hunger and desperation set in. She hadn't actually stolen anything out of spite before though.

Rogue chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. It wasn't like he didn't deserve it though. She had told him to back off and he didn't. He persisted. He went after her even after she walked away, twice! Clearly he brought the whole thing on himself and quite frankly he should be counting his blessings that she only took his cash and keys after she beat the snot out of him.

A part of her knew she was only trying to justify her actions but the rest of her brushed that part away. This was no time to feel guilty. She had to return to civilisation and find a place to dump the motorcycle. If the theft wasn't reported by now, she was sure it soon would be.

* * *

Rogue continued driving until the motorcycle ran out of fuel and abandoned it by the side of the road as planned. She stopped for a bite to eat, but feeling weary and uncomfortable from her trip, she checked into an inn. Rogue slept through the day. When she woke, she found herself on her bed, looking up at the ceiling and wondering what she was doing with herself. One thing was certain: she was not going to make the mistake of relying on anyone else again. Every time she did that she got stabbed in the back.

She fought back the tears that pricked at her eyes. She was not going to cry over Bobby. She wasn't going to cry over any of them. They weren't worth her tears.

Frustrated with wallowing in self-pity, Rogue got out of bed and checked out of the inn. She may not have had a plan, but she did know she didn't want to stop anywhere right now.

Rogue just started walking as she had the day before, with no real location in mind. Then she hit the highway and stopped. She supposed she could always hitch a ride but her earlier thoughts about not relying on anyone came back to haunt her and she baulked at the idea. At the same time, she wasn't exactly willing to fork over money just so she could take a coach, train or plane, especially as she had no real destination in mind, nor a way to support herself once her money was gone.

She wandered back up the road, deciding that she should at least rest her feet while figuring out her next course of action. She hadn't gone far when her eyes fell on a motorcycle parked by the side of the road. She stood and stared at it for a time, remembering the last bike she had stolen and wondering where the owner was. Rogue shook her head and pushed the thought away. No, she shouldn't have done that. The guy had been a jerk and gotten on her bad side but that was no excuse to steal his ride.

No matter how exciting it had been to get away with it.

With a jerk, Rogue finally convinced herself to walk away. So what if she knew exactly how to hot-wire it? Aside from the fact that stealing was wrong, she had been standing there staring at it for way too long, long enough that with her distinctive hair she's be remembered if anyone saw her and the motorcycle suddenly went missing. No, she was going to forget this stealing business and hitch a ride with someone.

* * *

Three hours later found Rogue on the highway riding a stolen motorcycle. Temptation had gotten the better of her when she had seen the line up of motorcycles outside the bar after having had the idea of hot-wiring a motorcycle spin around her mind all that time. She knew it was wrong, but she also knew the owners would be occupied for hours and she couldn't resist the urge to find out if she could get away with it.

* * *

It was possible, Rogue decided four days later, that she was getting a little carried away with this stealing thing. She couldn't help herself. It wasn't like she had anything left to lose and it was rather exciting running off with someone else's motorcycle between her legs, knowing that if the owner noticed too soon and the police spotted her with that knowledge, she'd be caught. Of course, the fact that she was usually done with the motorcycle in question as soon as it ran out of fuel was hardly the point. She could get up to six hours of travel out of any bike with a full tank (although most weren't) and that was six hours of potentially being caught time.

Maybe she had spent too much time in the danger room, to be getting off on stealing like this.

* * *

By the time Rogue hit California, she had come to the conclusion that this was as far away from New York and Xaviers as she was going to get short of going to another country. Rogue was somewhat hesitant of the idea of putting down roots, but at the same time was sensible enough to know that she couldn't just keep running with no goal. Besides, sooner or later she was going to run out of money.

Thus Rogue began to apply for jobs. Unfortunately, her lack of experience and references did not go in her favour, along with her lack of address. She applied for everything short of giving up her dignity (she was not going to work as a stripper or anything else in the sex industry, end of discussion). Stealing for a living started becoming not only tempting, but looking like her only option.

One of her first attempts at a job was at a mechanic and fell through. The men there, particularly the boss, had some rather sexist attitudes. Rogue might have let the matter slide if it hadn't been for the fact that the boss had suggested that there were some 'other' services she could provide. She was so incensed not only by his suggestion, but also by his slimy hands on her person, that Rogue ended up staking out the mechanics every night until she found out what day the boss did the banking. He didn't even see her coming.

Afterwards, Rogue wondered when this stealing business got so easy.

* * *

Rogue's latest application was for a position at a 24-hour diner. As it happened, the diner was badly short-staffed at the time that Rogue put her application in. The manager, Doug, had been on duty at the time and the moment he realised he had an applicant, he put her to work.

"We've got one hour until the lunch rush starts," he informed Rogue as he handed her a spare uniform. "If you can survive that, you have the job."

Rogue changed quickly, put on the 'Hi I'm New' badge and was sent to work cleaning up, wiping down and restocking tables. Kitchen duty at Xaviers proved to be adequate preparation and she quickly got into the swing of things.

Then the lunch rush started.

And all hell broke loose.

Afterwards, Rogue was certain only sheer determination got her through. What kitchen duty hadn't taught her, the danger room had clearly made up for as she weaved her way through customers and staff alike with dirty plates and glasses. When there were no tables to clear, Rogue helped with the dishwashing.

Finally things started to calm down and Doug called Rogue into his office to settle the paperwork. Doug raised his eyebrows when she gave her address as a hotel, and she simply replied that she was looking for a place. She didn't mention that her hotel bill was primarily being covered by robbing men who tried to force unwanted advances on her; the perils of being a woman alone in bad neighbourhoods.

Over the next few weeks, in between shifts at her new job, Rogue managed to locate a new apartment. It was small, and a complete, utter dump, but it was hers and she didn't have to share it with anyone. The downside was that what she was making at the diner was barely enough to cover the rent, let alone any other expenses. She had no furniture either, but at least she knew she could eat at the diner. What was leftover from her first pay cheque went towards a visit to a local thrift shop where she acquired a change of clothes.

Obviously one job wasn't going to be enough, so in her off hours Rogue went looking around for other job openings. After one disappointing day, she found herself outside of a biker bar named "Tony's". Feeling thirsty, Rogue made her way inside and headed over to the bar. She was under age so ordering alcohol was out of the question, but didn't mean she couldn't order a coke.

The bartender eyed her sceptically as she sat down at the bar.

"Could I get a coke, please?" she asked.

Well, he didn't need to check ID for that, so he got her the drink and she handed over the money.

"I don't suppose there are any job openings?" she asked.

"Sorry kid," he replied. "We're not hiring right now."

"Thanks anyway."

He gave her a nod and moved to the next customer. Rogue was part way through her drink when a young man sat down next to her.

"Hey," he said, making no effort to disguise the fact that he was checking her out. "Can I buy you a drink?"

"Got one," Rogue replied blandly.

"Right," he said. "I'm Joss."

"That's nice for you."

"And you are?"

"Not interested in company."

"Oh but we haven't even had a chance to get to know each other. I'm sure that –"

"My last boyfriend cheated on me with my roommate," Rogue interrupted coldly. "I'm not interested in either dating or sex right now. If either of those things are on your mind, then you're just wasting your time."

There was silence for a moment.

"Unless there's rum in that coke," Joss said finally, "I think you're going to need something a lot... harder."

"How does my fist in your mouth sound?" Rogue replied dangerously. "Beat it. Now."

Joss looked at her as if he was trying to decide on something, and finally lifted his hands and departed.

* * *

Rogue didn't visit Tony's again until the day she moved up from cleaning tables at the diner to serving customers. Her pocket was deeply grateful for the tips, and Rogue decided that the bar was the way she wanted to celebrate her first shift.

That Joss character was hanging around one of the pool tables with his friends when she came in. She ignored him and made her way to the bar to order herself another coke. It was only when she had her first sip that she wondered why she had chosen this place of all places to celebrate. She liked the atmosphere, she supposed. She smiled to herself. Maybe one of these days she'd have a motorcycle of her own and actually feel like she belonged here.

The smiled faded from her lips and she looked down at her drink. Did she really want to belong here? Did she even want to belong anywhere?

"Back again?"

Rogue looked up to see Joss at her side. "You don't take a hint, do you?"

"Guess not," he replied as the bartender slide four bottles of beer over to him. "Thanks Tony. Sure I can't get you that drink?"

"Just leave me alone."

"Hey Joss!" called a voice from the pool tables. "Stop your flirting and get back here with my beer!"

"Your boyfriend's waiting," Rogue said snidely.

Joss' face darkened noticeably. "Bitch."

"Yep," Rogue drawled. "That's the way to a woman's heart; call her names."

She finished her coke in one fell swoop and sauntered past him out the front door. A part of her rather wanted to deck him, but he hadn't actually put his hands anywhere unwanted or tried to restrain her or anything, and she figured starting a fight in a bar wasn't really a good idea.

Rogue wasn't entirely certain why she went back the next night, and the night after, but Joss was certainly persistent. Somehow his friends ended up involved – usually cheering on her scathing rejections. She became known to the group as "Rogue" which she felt was more appropriate here than "Marie", and eventually met most if not all of the members of their motorcycle club. The ones she got to know best were Owen, Gary, Baz, Carlos and their leader, Frank.

It was during this time that Rogue found out about the street racing that most of the bikies in the area took part in on Saturday nights. Rogue was very much intrigued by this and succeeded in getting herself invited along the very next Saturday. This was when Frank found out about her lack of wheels.

"I've just been walking everywhere," she replied with a shrug when she was asked. "I have my licence, I just have no cash."

"Well, there's betting at the races. If you ever end up with some extra cash, never know. Might get lucky."

Rogue found the race scene to be rather thrilling. It was crowded and difficult to make sense of at first, but she soon got the hang of what was happening. It was also at the races that Rogue found that second job she was after; starting races. Rogue resented the skimpy clothes, especially on the cold nights, but all she had to do was 'look sexy' and wave a flag. The money wasn't much either, but it was per race and she also got a better understanding of how the system worked.

Of course, there was the downside of being propositioned by a number of men who seemed to think that skimpy clothes equalled whore. Rogue was quick to disavow them of this idea and take their money for her trouble. Owen caught her at it one night and stared at her.

"Did you just do what I think you did?" he asked.

"Well, if you think you saw me compensating myself for being manhandled without my express permission, then yes, you did," Rogue replied matter-of-factly.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side."

"Okay, never get on my bad side."

"Smart ass."

"Damn straight."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Things were finally starting to come together. Rogue got moved to the early shift at the diner and finally earned enough money to buy her own motorcycle. She used what mechanical expertise she had to soup up her bike as much as she could, although she lacked the necessary parts to do so as much as she wanted. Her apartment now had things like a bed, linens, towels, and a stocked kitchen complete with cooking utensils.

As soon as Rogue had enough cash, she entered her first race and put down the highest bet she could afford on herself after the entry fee. The odds against her were insultingly high, but Rogue just told herself that it would make her victory all the sweeter. And she had to win. She had a lot of money riding on it.

She waited at the starting line while her replacement walked out in front of them. She watched while the girl raised the flag and then waved it down. Rogue and her competition took off. Like all the racers, Rogue had previously travelled the route by daylight with some of the other guys. Knowing she wanted to race, a couple of them offered her some tips about various parts of the course, although the course was known to change from time to time in order to evade the police. Rogue had put together a strategy, but now that she was in the race, the thrill of the high-speed ride sent all of her planing out the window (or the helmet, as the case may be). The other riders ceased to matter. Money and stakes were no longer a concern. She was having fun!

Rogue was a little disappointed when she crossed the finish line, because that meant the ride was over. Her disappointment was short lived when she realised she was the winner of the race. She quite smugly collected her winnings; both the pooled prize money and her bet.

* * *

Rogue smiled at the kittens in the window of the pet store. There were three domestic short-hairs, two busy tackling each other while the third was drinking from its water bowl. She would have loved to get a pet, but pets were not allowed in her rented apartment.

Reluctantly, Rogue moved away and continued down the corridor of shops. Her place might have been small, but somehow it always felt large when she was home. Perhaps she was just too used to living with other people. If she got a roommate she could probably afford to have a better place and have some company, but Kitty's actions turned her off the idea. Regardless of the number of people she had gotten to know, she didn't really consider herself close to any of them and she liked it that way. If she didn't get close, she couldn't be betrayed, and she had had quite enough of being betrayed.

Idly, Rogue wandered into a toy store and she smiled to herself. It had been a long time since she last had any toys. After her parents died when she was four, Rogue had been adopted by Mama - later she found out 'Mama' was Mystique - and Aunt Irene. For years the only non-educational toy she had was the teddy bear she had owned when she was adopted. It mysteriously disappeared not long after her tenth birthday. Rogue was never entirely certain if she lost it on her own, or if Mystique had a hand in it.

Rogue sighed as she drifted into the aisle where the soft toys were on display. When she was thirteen she had come home from after-school activities, all excited because Cody had finally worked up the nerve to ask her out, and found the house was locked up. No one answered her knock. Irene should have been home, but she wasn't and Rogue had no way in. She ended up sitting on the doorstep for a couple of hours before working up the nerve to go next door. They tried ringing, but there was no answer. Rogue stayed the night and when there was still no sign of life the next morning, the police were called. There was nothing to say what had happened and Rogue ended up with her foster parents who disowned her the same day they found out she was a mutant.

Her eyes fell on a plump little teddy bear with shiny, beaded eyes, a cute face and soft brown fur. Impulsively she took the bear to the counter. She had been on a winning streak at the races lately and was in the mood to be indulgent.

* * *

"I got him," Baz gloated as he joined his friends in the bar.

"Got who?" asked Gary.

"That little mutie who keep scavenging in our neighbourhood," Baz said, rather pleased with himself. "He won't be scavenging anywhere now."

Rogue kept her face impassive as she took a swig from her beer. The guys weren't beneath buying her one occasionally, and Tony pretended not to notice.

"All right," said Joss, lining up his shot at the pool table, "one less mutie to contaminate the gene pool. So, Rogue, about that date tomorrow night; pick you up at eight?"

"I don't recall ever agreeing to a date," Rogue replied blandly.

"But you –"

"You just _assumed_ I'd agree to go with you."

Gary laughed and Joss glared at him.

* * *

Rogue shot up in bed, panting heavily as the last vestiges of a long-forgotten nightmare faded away. It had been at least a year since she last had any nightmares about mutant experimentation from either Logan or Magneto, and she certainly hadn't missed them.

Slowly, Rogue lay back down on the bed, feeling very small and alone. Her apartment seemed so foreboding in the dark. She tossed and turned, attempting to get back to sleep, but the dream had made her too anxious to slip back into sleep. In the end, she reached out for her teddy bear, which lived on her bedside table. It was just the right size for cuddling and her only source of comfort right now.

* * *

One Tuesday morning, just shy of the breakfast rush, Rogue was momentarily distracted from her work by a news headline that started playing on the lone television. The trigger word had been "mutant" and was swiftly followed by "signs that the 'cure' is wearing off." Rogue didn't register a thing after that. She was too busy mentally screaming every expletive she knew. No, no, no! Absolutely not! She was _not_ going to go back to not being able to touch anyone again.

"Marie? Yoo hoo, Marie?" said Lisa.

When the waitress got no response from Rogue, she waved her hand in front of her face and giggled when Rogue jumped.

"Oh sorry," Rogue said.

"A million miles away?" Lisa asked with a grin on her face.

"Yeah, a bit."

* * *

"They never should have stopped making the 'cure'," Joss declared. "They need to start making it again, and force all the muties to take it."

"I have a better 'cure' right here," Baz said, patting his side where he kept his gun.

Rogue said nothing and just looked at her beer. It was a good thing that she had Wednesdays off because she had no intention of leaving here anything short of completely smashed.

"Yeah!" Carlos cheered. "By the way, can I have all your bottles when you're done?"

"More Molotov cocktails?" Owen asked, looking amused.

She should have realised that the weird dreams and nightmares she'd been having was a sign her powers were returning. She should have.

"You can never have too many fire bombs," Carlos replied gleefully

"One of these days you're going to fire bomb the wrong place," said Frank sagely. "And it's going to bite you on the ass."

She liked being able to wear whatever she wanted. Damn... she'd have to give up her job at the diner. Not that Rogue had any intention of being a waitress forever, but she wanted to quit on her terms, not because of the impracticality of trying to wait tables while wearing gloves. That was a disaster in the making right there.

"Nah," Carlos replied. "There's no such thing as a wrong place to fire bomb."

"What about... the gas station?" offered Owen. "It's a little hard to fill up your bike if all the fuel is on fire."

"But think of the massive flames!"

She might have chosen not to get romantically involved with anyone (unless she counted Joss' advances as 'romantic'), but that didn't mean she didn't want all the other forms of touching: hugs, handshakes, brushing by someone in the street or as drinks were passed or whatever the case may be.

"Can I get another?" Rogue asked, pushing her empty beer bottle towards Carlos.

"Absolutely," said Carlos, standing up. "Anyone else? No? Be right back."

"You okay, Rogue?" asked Joss as he looked at her in concern.

"Lousy day," Rogue replied.

"I bet I know a way to cheer you up," Joss said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Right, sleeping with a violent mutant-hater, brilliant idea. Almost as brilliant as hanging out with three violent mutant haters. How was that for a cheap thrill? Yes, Rogue was 'friends' with people who she couldn't be entirely certain wouldn't try to kill her if they learned the truth about her.

"You're just asking to be smacked again," Owen said with a smirk.

"Whaddya say, Rogue?" asked Joss, ignoring Owen while he slipped his arm across Rogue's shoulders. "You, me, my place. Or yours. I'm not picky."

Maybe she should sleep with Joss. Who knew how much time she had left before she became untouchable again. Perhaps she should make use of the time she had and do it. Then, just for kicks afterwards, she could say:

"I'm a mutant."

Wait, she didn't just say that _aloud_, did she?

"Come again?" said Joss, blinking at her.

"I'm a mutant," Rogue repeated, mentally blaming the booze for her slip of the tongue and wondering how she was going to get out of this one.

"No you're not," Joss said.

Rogue giggled and leaned into him.

"Ask me what my mutant power is," she said.

Maybe she should have though through her plan to get wasted a bit more.

"What's your mutant power?" Joss asked warily.

"It's not obvious?" Rogue asked. "I make men fall desperately in love with me."

All but Baz laughed. Baz just shook his head.

"Right," said Gary, playing along, "and you had to take the 'cure' because all these men were just following you around all the time."

"Exactly!" Rogue replied with a grin. "So nowadays I can only make men weak at the knees."

"You cheat in fights, don't you?" Owen said.

"Frequently," Rogue said cheerfully.

"What's happening?" asked Carlos, joining the table and passing one of the two beers over to Rogue. "Your beer."

"Thanks," Rogue replied.

"We were just discussing Rogue's mutant power of making men weak at the knees," Gary said.

"You're not serious," Carlos said.

"Of course not," said Joss. "She was just turning me down again. One of these days, Rogue -"

"It's not something to joke about," Carlos said. "Muties are a menace to society."

"And you're not, arson-boy?" Rogue demanded.

"Hey, I just burn crap," Carlos retorted. "Some of these muties can walk through walls."

Rogue knew that Carlos was only spouting one of the many excuses used to justify mutant registration and termination, but he did have to pick Kitty's power, didn't he? So when Rogue's only response was to drink her beer, Carlos figured he'd won a point.

* * *

Rogue was curled up in her bed, cuddling her teddy bear with its tear-soaked fur. Stupid 'cure' wearing off. There was a phrase for that; "false advertising". She should have realised that it was too good to be true. She should have known she'd just get betrayed _again_.

Rogue choked out another sob as she clutched her bear. This was going to be her life, wasn't it? She was never going to be able to trust any one. She was always going to be on her own, with a teddy bear for a best friend. What did it matter that her powers were going to come back? So what if in a few months to a couple of years she'd never be able to touch anyone ever again? It wasn't like she was letting anyone get close to her now. At least she could touch her best friend without hurting him, powers or no powers.

Eventually Rogue fell asleep, and woke up late Wednesday morning with a throbbing headache. She stayed in bed for at least another hour before she finally got up.

Rogue was just starting to feel human again when there was a knock at her door. Reluctantly she got up, pulled her dressing gown around her and leaned on the frame as she opened the door up a crack.

"Oh hey Joss," she said, opening up the door wider.

"New course this Saturday," Joss said, holding up a sheet.

Rogue nodded and let him in. Joss set the map down on the table to go over the course with her. His finger traced over the bold black line on the map while they talked, and his free hand slowly wrapped itself around her waist.

"Wanna go for a ride?" Joss asked.

"Yeah, sure," Rogue replied. "Just give me a minute to get dressed."

Not long thereafter, Rogue and Joss were on the road. They travelled the new race route and made note of the checkpoints before Joss took it upon himself to escort Rogue back home. He hovered at her side while she unlocked the door.

"Well," Rogue said, lifting her head to look at him. "I guess I'll see you on Sat-:

Rogue got no further before she was interrupted by Joss' lips on hers. She was rather startled to realise just how eagerly she responded to his kiss and it took her a moment before she came to her senses. She wasn't going to sleep with someone she _knew_ would betray her unless he had a dramatic change of heart about mutants. Rogue pulled away.

"You know what you need, sugar?" Rogue said softly.

"You?" Joss suggested, pressing into her.

"A girlfriend," Rogue replied slyly. "Maybe then you'll learn to keep your hands off me."

"You know you want me, Rogue," Joss replied as he watched her enter her apartment. "You know you do."

"Keep dreaming, lover-boy," Rogue answered and shut the door in his face.

Rogue leaned against the wall as she heard Joss leave and put her fingers to her lips. She was going to miss that. Maybe she should sleep with Joss. Maybe she should sleep with a few guys, just to get as much skin contact and variety as she could before her powers came back. Go out with a bang, as it were.

Rogue snorted and walked into the kitchen. No. She still had her dignity. She hadn't played the whore before and she wasn't going to start now.

She opened up the fridge and reached for a beer. As her fingers curled around the bottle, Rogue frowned. Why did she have beer in her fridge?

Oh that's right. She asked Owen to pick some up for her.

Rogue opened up the bottle and brought it to her lips before she stopped again. Why on earth did she want beer at home anyway? She was a purely social drinker. Beer was just a prop she used when hanging out with her riding buddies.

Still, she took a swig all the same before setting the bottle down on the counter. Wasn't even good beer anyway. All this American stuff was far too watered down. Give her a good Canadian brew any day.

Rogue paused.

"Logan," she hissed.

Although she couldn't hear Logan or any of her other voices, she knew he was there. His voice must have been just loud enough to be heard on the subconscious level. It made sense that Logan would be the first voice for her to notice too; she had more of him in her than anyone else.

Rogue frowned to herself. What had they said on the news? It could take months, possibly even years, for the 'cure' to wear off depending on dosage and batch. Well, she was not going to take her voices giving her subliminal instructions. They were just going to have to learn to keep their opinions to themselves.

Rogue poured the beer down the sink. Maybe she won't be able to touch anyone again, but she sure as hell wasn't going to let the voices of those she had rule her life. How she was going to fight subliminal messages she had no idea, but she had to start somewhere. She contemplated pouring the rest of the beer in the fridge down the drain as well, but she hated the idea of wasting the money and decided to leave them for guests.

Well, if she ever had any guests.

* * *

"He's hot," said Lisa, gesturing to a new customer who'd just sat down.

The breakfast rush was just getting started and Rogue rolled her eyes at what she considered to be Lisa's catch cry.

"If he tips well, he can be as ugly as all hell for all I care," Rogue replied.

Lisa rolled her eyes. "You and money. Is that all you ever think about?"

"Actually, this morning I'm kinda wondering why everyone's been going overboard on the deodorant," Rogue said.

"They are?" Lisa asked. "I can't say I've noticed."

Rogue shrugged as the bell rang and she picked up the plates for one of her tables. It wasn't just the deodorant, everything seemed to smell extra strong today. The coffee, the salt, the grease, she'd even wonder if the garbage had been taken out recently if she hadn't done it herself. She was personally amazed that the people sitting around the toilets weren't being repulsed; Rogue was greatly relieved her section was nowhere near them.

Rogue announced the order and handed out the plates, then she made her way over to "hot guy"s table.

"Mornin' sugar," she said. "What can I getcha?"

She then proceeded to ignore his blatant checking out while he gave his order. If it got her better tips, he could flirt with her to his heart's content. Wasn't like it was going to go any further than that.

As the diner filled up with more and more people, Rogue really started feeling overwhelmed by all the smells. It wasn't just the smells either; everything was louder and brighter. She could hear every mouthful of food being eaten, every whirl of the EFTPOS machine, every flush of the toilet. Worse was that no one else seemed to notice. Everyone carried on as if everything was normal and she was the only one having a nasty case of sensory overload. It quickly became an effort to keep her temper in check, to say nothing of remaining polite to the customers.

In the end she ran to the staff toilet and locked the door. She sat down, shut her eyes tight and covered her ears. Even that was painful because she could hear the blood running through her veins. She didn't think she could last the remaining two hours of her shift at this rate. She mentally begged everything to shut up and go away.

Then the slightest whisper. What the words were, Rogue wasn't entirely certain but she knew the voice was Logan's. At that moment everything made sense. It was like the incident with the beer, only somehow she'd managed to tap into Logan's enhanced senses. She tried to grab his psyche's form in her mind, but it was like trying to grab air. In the end she succeeded in pushing him away into a little box, like a wind blows confetti.

Then, it was silent. She could opened her eyes and see without being overwhelmed by light and colours. The toilet no longer smelt like a sewer. Rogue took a few deep breaths, washed her hands and went back to work.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Rogue bought a notebook and pen on her way home from work. Once back at her apartment, she sat down at the table and opened up the notebook. On one half of the first page she wrote down the names of all her psyches, and on the other half she sorted them in order of loudest to quietest. Logan was loudest, of course, by virtue of being absorbed multiple times, voluntary and with extended contact. He was followed by Bobby (much to Rogue's annoyance), Pete, Kitty, Magneto, Pyro, then David who had been the first recipient of her her powers, and finally four humans she had absorbed by accident in between David and joining the X-men; Angela, Brad, Lance and Danny.

She turned the page and wrote down the date that she got the news that the 'cure' would be wearing off. Underneath it, Rogue mentioned that she had noticed she'd been having nightmares and suspected they were from Logan, although she couldn't be completely certain Magneto wasn't responsible for some of them. On the next page she wrote down the date of the day she'd realised there was beer in her fridge and jotted down her observations about that. Finally she noted down what had happened to her that morning in the diner.

Rogue sat back and considered the matter. The good news was that once she figured out what was happened, she could tuck away Logan's psyche quite nicely. The bad news was that he was influencing her in the first place, and that he still managed in influence her after she'd tucked him in away. Thinking on this, however, Rogue was forced to concede to herself that her inability to tuck Logan's psyche away completely might not be entirely in her hands, given that her powers were on their way back and his psyche wasn't nearly as loud as it used to be just yet. Still, practising while he was still quiet may give her just the mental exercise and learning experience she needed to tuck him away properly when his voice was back to full strength. What's more, it should also help with the voices that were normally very quiet simply because she hadn't absorbed enough of them in the first place.

She nodded to herself and made her way to the kitchen. After a moment's thought, Rogue pulled out the salt, some mustard and poured a glass of orange juice. These three things she stood on the bench and studied for a good couple of minutes. Rogue then took a deep breath, let Logan's psyche out of the box and waited. She sniffed experimentally, but nothing smelt any stronger than it had before. Light and colour didn't seem to have changed either.

After about five or ten minutes of staring, Rogue sighed, feeling a little silly. Obviously this wasn't going to work. She put the salt and mustard away and then began to drink the orange juice. After the first sip, she turned up her nose in disgust. Orange juice, seriously, who drank that? Rogue put the glass down, went back to the fridge and reached in for one of the beers she knew was there...

"Oh!" she gasped, and a triumphant smile began to grow on her face. "Aha Logan! I have you now!"

Jubilantly, Rogue relocated Logan's psyche and tucked him away again. She looked at the beer in the fridge and smirked when she noted that she no longer had a hankering for it over the orange juice. This smugness only lasted long enough for her to realise that there were only four beers in the fridge instead of five. Groaning to herself, Rogue checked her rubbish; sure enough, there was the fifth beer.

Shaking her head, Rogue drank her orange juice and sat back down at the table. She noted the results of her little experiment in the notebook and the fifth beer bottle, then put everything down and sat back to consider the matter.

"Okay, let's think," she said to herself as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Right now the only psyche I'm aware of is Logan. I can't actually hear him, but he's influenced me to drink beer when I normally wouldn't and when I let him out of his cage just now, he didn't influence me the way I expected him to."

She sighed.

"Ultimately, I'd like to be able to stuff psyches away as soon as I'm done absorbing someone. Obviously I can't practice that until I can actually absorb people again, but that was the whole point of letting Logan's psyche out again: stuffing him back into place. Okay so... what do I need? I need... I need to be able to recognise it when I'm being influenced – no, I need to be able to recognise when a psyche has gotten out of its box and I need to learn how to stuff them away into boxes so that they can't get out without my permission. Why I would want to let them out, I have no idea, but I have 'em so I'm sure I can fine some use for 'em."

* * *

Rogue decided that before she could learn how to stuff psyches away, that she would have to develop greater awareness of her psyches. Thus it was that every day Rogue took to letting Logan out of his box for a couple of hours. Sometimes she would just stay at home and try to focus on the inner workings of her mind or try some of the physical exercises that Logan has taught her in the past. Other times she went out and just waited to see what happened.

To counter the beer drinking, Rogue put some bottled water into the fridge next to the four remaining beers. Her theory was that if she saw the water when she went absently for a beer, she might realise what she was doing. Or she might not; didn't know unless she tried.

The weeks went by and Rogue found her experiments to be far more beneficial than she originally thought. For one thing, on those occasions where Logan's enhanced senses kicked in she found that his psyche was also able to help her adjust to them, rather than being overwhelmed. After all, Logan was used to that level of sensory input, Rogue wasn't.

By the time Bobby's psyche began to make his appearance, Logan's psyche had gotten quite verbal. However, Rogue was also able to identify a 'core' within both psyches. If she could contain the core, she could contain the voice and all its influence. It was with much pleasure that Rogue took the core of Bobby's psyche, stuffed it in a neat little box and dumped it into the farthest recesses of her mind.

* * *

Rogue toyed with the idea of upping her standard bet at the races, but in the end handed over her usual amount to the bookie. As confident as she was at winning, confidence alone didn't win races. She wanted to build up her cash as much as possible in case the inevitable return of her powers forced her to make a quick getaway.

She hung out with the guys until her race was called and she lined up with her competitors at the starting line. A slight smile crossed her face as the girl walked in front, flag in hand, relieved she didn't have her job any more. She waved the flag, and off zoomed Rogue and the other racers.

Partway through the course, Rogue heard a police siren behind her. She swore under her breath as they signalled for her to pull over. She had a brief mental debate but ultimately increased speed, hoping to lose them, and left the course. It was bad enough she was now going to lose the race because of their interference without having to deal with legal costs as well.

Rogue got on the main road leading away from the quiet industrial area where the racing had been set up. There wasn't nearly as much traffic this time of night, but she still cut someone off once she hit the T-intersection. She knew the area well enough to bypass speeding and red light cameras. The chase was kind of fun at first, but the sport started waning when the police kept finding her again every time she thought she'd lost them. All Rogue wanted to do was lose them and find a place to lie low while she waited for things to cool down.

Then the worst happened: Her front tyre blew out.

There was simply no time. She couldn't shift her weight to the back of the bike fast enough and she lost all ability to steer. The best she could do was jump with only seconds to spare before sheer momentum sent both rider and bike slamming into a nearby building. Her bike smashed into pieces and Rogue knew the moment she hit the wall, before she even felt the pain, that she was severely injured.

The smart thing to do would have been to wait for help - the police were hardly far behind for one thing - but Rogue was nothing if not stubborn, and so began to drag herself away from the scene. This was easier said than done. She knew bones had broken, and she was aware that she was losing blood, but this all seemed far away and unimportant. She pulled out Logan's psyche, hoping that his enhanced senses would give her the edge she needed to evade the police long enough to tend her injuries.

Somehow she found the strength to get around the corner into a darkened alley. Breathing started to get easier, although it was only when it got easier that Rogue realised that it had been staggered and painful only moments before. The stench of rubbish filled her nostrils but it was not enough to hide the scent of people, nor the smell of burnt rubber from her motorcycle.

There was a door towards the back of the alley and Rogue pulled herself there. It was a vain attempt, but she tried to get in the locked door anyway. She darted a look at the entrance of the alley, and then glanced at the back fence. Having only one way out, Rogue got to her feet (much relieved to find that she could) and began to climb over. As soon as she got to the top, she jumped down, right now not caring if she did herself further injury, and continued walking.

The way was clear as far as she could smell, and Rogue continued on her way. Abruptly she stopped. She was _walking_. But she was so certain that she'd felt at least one of her legs get crushed... Rogue looked down and felt her legs. Sure her leather pants were bloodied, but her legs felt intact, as did her arms. She stretched up experimentally and the pain in her back abruptly disappeared as she felt it crack. This wasn't right. Rogue was by no means complaining, but this wasn't right. Only a minute ago she wasn't even able to stand and then she was climbing and walking; she knew adrenaline could do a lot to delay the mental realisation of injuries, but this was ridiculous. Her breathing was fine, she wasn't in any pain, she could walk and as far as she could tell she was no longer losing any blood.

Her ears pricked up at the sound of a siren, and her eyes darted around. She could figure out what was going on later, right now she needed to make herself scarce.

* * *

Rogue was woken up on Sunday morning by a knock on the door. She wrapped her dressing gown around her.

"Who is it?" she called.

Rogue stiffened when her visitors identified themselves as the police, but took a deep breath and opened the door.

"Why good morning officers," she said. "What can I do for you?"

"Marie D'Ancanto?" one asked.

"That's right."

"Do you own," he proceeded to rattle off the registration number of her motorcycle.

"Yes... What's this about?"

"Where were you last night between..."

Rogue informed them she was home alone. When asked if anyone could vouch for her, she asked them what part of "alone" they didn't understand. Eventually Rogue managed to get out of them that her motorcycle had been totalled the night before and the driver was suspected to be involved with illegal street racing. Rogue informed them that the idea was ridiculous and that her motorcycle was parked in the garage. She promptly freaked out when they got to the garage and she 'discovered' it wasn't there.

The investigation that followed worked out rather well from Rogue's perspective. Being a Saturday night, most of the tenants in her apartment block had all been out, and those who hadn't been never noticed the departure of her motorcycle. A security camera across the street from the crash site and forensics confirmed that the rider would have had to be injured, and badly, but because Rogue was obviously completely healthy and in one piece, no one could reasonably pin her as the rider. It was doubly fortunate for Rogue that there had been a light rain overnight that the investigators had been unable to get a clear enough blood sample for a DNA analysis. She had taken the precaution of dumping the riding gear that she had been wearing that night too, glad that she had a spare set in her wardrobe.

The only sticking point was the matter of her key in the ignition. In the end Rogue allowed everyone to think she was stupid enough to leave her spare key on her motorcycle, but in her favour, her motorcycle lock was found in her parking space.

With hidden delight, Rogue made an insurance claim and was thrilled to find that they would still cover her even though the key had apparently been left on the bike (although she suspected it wouldn't happen again). Officially, she expressed nothing but irritation, anger and frustration at the whole thing, although a lot of that frustration was real when she found herself having to walk to work while she was waiting for insurance to pay up. Unofficially, Rogue was rather excited at the prospect of getting a new motorcycle. Between the insurance and the money she'd saved from her wins, she was expecting to get a much better motorcycle, and maybe even go up a division in the races once she deemed it was safe for her to join back in again.

Her miraculous healing, Rogue rightly put down to Logan's psyche. It was the only logical explanation and she was rather surprised she didn't think of it earlier, given that Logan's enhanced senses were a part of his mutation. Rogue made further experiments with this new development and amused herself with bone claws.

Knowing that her use of borrowed powers had a tendency to wear off, however, and uncertain whether her imprinted powers would be permanent or have a limited lifespan, Rogue reluctantly brought Bobby's psyche out for more experiments. At first she had trouble, which she put down to Bobby's psyche not being quite loud enough yet, but she eventually began to make headway. Pete and Kitty's psyches weren't far behind Bobby's in returning, and shortly thereafter Magneto's and Pyro's began to make an appearance. Soon it was Logan's psyche that was spending the most time shut away, but Rogue felt that the practice managing different psyches was ultimately much more beneficial.

* * *

"Guess what!" Rogue said delightedly to her fellow waitress Kathy as the breakfast rush began to calm down.

"What?" Kathy asked, surprised at this unusual level of excitement from her colleague.

"I've got a new baby!"

"You're going to have a baby?"

"No, silly," Rogue said, slinging an arm around her (and weirding Kathy out by her unusual friendliness). "I _got_ a new baby. I have a new motorcycle, finally, after my old one got stolen. She's just gorgeous. Do you wanna meet her?"

Kathy giggled nervously and Lisa rolled her eyes.

"I think we're all going to have to see this thing," Lisa said. "Honestly, Marie, the way you've been going on about this new bike of yours why... anyone would think you liked it better than people."

"You know what Lisa? It's entirely possible," Rogue beamed.

When Rogue's shift was over, Lisa and Kathy walked out with her so they could see Rogue's new Kawasaki Ninja.

"It's very... green," said Kathy.

"I like green," Rogue replied.

"Shouldn't Ninjas be black or something?" Lisa asked.

"Some are," Rogue replied. "And is the colour all you guys can comment on?"

She then proceeded to lovingly rattle off the specifications of her new motorcycle, all of which went completely over Lisa and Kathy's heads, and they managed to escape by citing that they really needed to get back to work.

Rogue's riding buddies were far more appreciative of her new ride. They also thought it was pretty cool that not only was she able to evade the police but she was also able to collect on insurance. Rogue just downplayed how she was able to avoid injuries, saying she got lucky, which had the benefit of being true.

She gave it some time for the heat to cool down before she started racing again though. While she did save on fuel, what she made as a waitress wasn't really enough.

* * *

He was tall, blond, built like a tank and he looked Rogue over as she and her motorcycle approached the starting line.

"You're not racing are you?" he asked her.

"No, I'm just here for the scenery," Rogue retorted dryly. "Of course I'm here for the race."

"Huh," he sniffed, now eyeing off her new motorcycle. "On that? Good luck, sweetheart. You're going to need it."

"Oh good," Rogue replied slyly. "I like over-confidence in my competition. It makes victory all the sweeter."

Especially when the odds on her winning tonight were almost insulting. Not nearly as high as they were when she first started, but certainly the highest they'd been in awhile. Rogue planned on cleaning up tonight.

He chuckled.

"How about we make things interesting," he said, leaning in close to her. "How does a side bet sound to you?"

"That would depend on the stakes, now, wouldn't it?"

"Well," he said, daring to run one hand along her leather-clad leg. "I know what I want."

"Funny, I do too," Rogue replied darkly. "When I win, I'm going to take your bike and use it for spare parts."

He paused. "Good thing for me, you're not going to win. Because what I have in mind for us when I win will be so much more _fun_."

"Uh huh, and if you don't get your hand off me right now, I'm going to use _you_ for 'spare parts'," Rogue said. "Take your little 'side bet' and shove it up your ass."

He had no chance to retort as the racers were given the signal to get ready. Rogue sat on her motorcycle and pulled down the visor on her helmet. The girl waved the flag and off they went.

It was clear from the first that the blond rider – whose name Rogue would later learn was Niel – was out to get her. He was ruthless in not only staying directly in front of her, but also demonstrated he wasn't beneath running her off the road or otherwise setting her up for an 'accident'.

Fine. He wasn't the only one who could play dirty.

Next to Logan, Bobby's psyche was the easiest to get out. Rogue pulled out her ex-boyfriend and accessed his powers. It took some concentration, especially at the high speeds, but as they approached a corner, Rogue iced over the ground in front of Niel. Knowing exactly where the ice was, Rogue was able to ride on by without touching any of it herself and left Niel trying to recover behind her.

Rogue sped off, catching up with the two other riders in front. She succeeded in bypassing one of the riders when Niel came up behind her and tried to not only bypass her, but drive her off the side of the road. Her preferred option would have been to pull out Kitty's psyche and phase herself and her motorcycle, but she didn't care for any of her fellow riders to witness her doing such a thing. It rankled, but Rogue reluctantly dropped back and came back up around the other side of the other rider. Niel passed them both.

By the time Rogue managed to get into the third place position, Niel had already taken first. A series of tight turns won her second position. She began gaining on Niel.

The finish line was in sight but was coming up too soon. Rogue just didn't have enough time to get past. The idea of losing to Niel put a bitter taste in her mouth.

It didn't occur to Rogue until afterwards that she had cheated. It didn't matter to her at that point that they were in first and second places. They could have been in fifth and sixth at that moment for all she cared. All Rogue was thinking about was how she _did not_ want to lose to _him_.

Rogue pulled out Magneto's psyche. She used his power to manipulate magnetic fields to latch onto Niel's motorcycle and not only slow him down, but propel herself past him. She crossed the finish line in a decisive victory. She collected her prize money after she came to a stop and didn't even bother to hide her smirk as Niel met her eyes and glared malevolently at her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Matters with Niel only went from bad to worse. Rogue wasn't sure if it was just her, or if Niel was just a misogynist. The animosity between them quickly grew to dangerous levels, and every race they were both in, Niel consistently tried to run her off the road. The rest of the time he would get insulting and grabby. On the one hand, Rogue's riding buddies were more than happy to stand by her, even knowing she was perfectly capable of defending herself. On the other hand, Niel had friends too.

The thing that worried Rogue most about Niel was how far he was willing to go. Some of the guys she hang out with had violent tendencies too, but they'd never actually tried to kill her. Likewise, as interested as Joss and a couple of the others were in her, they'd never tried to force her (although there were a couple she wouldn't put past putting something in her drink). There were a few near misses on the road too, and Rogue knew the only reason she survived was because of her new found ability to used the powers she imprinted from others at her whim.

However, the matter of her personal security became an even bigger concern the Saturday night she thought she was being followed home after the races. At first she thought she was just being paranoid, but as the road were quite empty in those wee hours of the morning , she became more and more convinced that there was definitely someone following her. In the end, she drove into an alley, phased herself through the back wall and continued driving the long way home. By the time she got back to her apartment, she thought she was clear, but she was too hyped up on nervous energy to get any sleep.

Logan's senses told her there was no one about as she pulled out her nights winnings. She opened up the tin where she kept her money from her racing and after counting, she added the cash. Rogue was about to put the tin back in the drawer when she hesitated. Anyone could open up a tin. There was a time where she thought about using a cash box instead of a tin, but thought that anything with a lock on it was just telling people where she stashed her cash. If there was just a way she could secure the tin without - oooh!

Rogue pulled out Magneto's psyche and used his powers to merge the lid and base into one. Experimentally, she used his powers to open the tin cube, checked her cash and then closed it up again and put his psyche away again. She'd have to watch out for coins, but it should do. She was about to put it back into the drawer, when she looked around the room and spotted her small set of shelves in one corner of the room. She moved the small vase she was using as a poor substitute for a book end with her money cube and then place the vase in front of it, making a mental note to get some flowers for it. Hidden in plain sight; she liked it.

Of course, securing her money wasn't quite the same as securing her person. Rogue was certain that if she was alert and awake she could handle anything he threw at her.

It was just a matter of making sure she was awake and alert.

...

"All right," said Rogue. "One big breakfast with pancakes..."

She announced the rest of the order as she places the plates on the table for the four customers. As she put down the final plate, her hand briefly brushed the hand of the woman closest to her.

"Is there anything else I can get you?" Rogue asked them, straightening up again.

"No, we're fine thanks."

"Okay, enjoy your meal."

Rogue went on with her work in the crowded diner. With everyone chatting around her, she didn't notice the new whisper in her head until her shift was over and she'd changed into her motorcycle gear for the trip home.

She frowned to herself just before she put her helmet on and looked around.

"Someone there?" she asked as she looked around, but saw no one.

There was no reply, but Rogue knew she could definitely hear someone. The voice was a low murmur; loud enough to know it was someone speaking, but too quiet to make out any words. She shrugged it off and put on her helmet.

Rogue had opted to have an indulgent day and she went to the cinema to see a movie she was interested in. She quiet enjoyed it, but the quieter moments of the movie were spoiled by someone talking. Rogue hated it when people talked during the movie.

By the time Rogue got home, she was well and truly frustrated. She could still hear that murmuring that had been plaguing her all day, with no clue as to what in the world it was. It couldn't be any of her voices; although they'd all returned to their normal volume, Rogue had figured out how to tuck them away so she could actually think and not be bothered by them. And her ability to acquire new voices hadn't come back yet so...

Oh.

Rogue swallowed hard, closed her eyes and searched her mind. Sure enough there was indeed a new psyche in her head. It was so small, it reminded her of what Logan's voice had been like when it first started to make an appearance. Who it was, Rogue couldn't make out, simply for lack of substance. Nevertheless, Rogue located the core, tucked the psyche into a box and stored it away.

Her hands shook as she sat down on the bed. This was it; the day she had been dreading since they'd announced the 'cure' was wearing off. She was going back to being untouchable.

Tears began to prick at her eyes and she wiped them away impatiently. She was not going to cry about this. She hated crying. Okay, so what if she wasn't entirely prepared for this? She still had time. Like her voices, reacquiring her ability to absorb people in the first place would probably take its time returning as well. She should work on maximising her money stash and start working out where she was going to go and what she was going to do. She'd have to stop being a waitress, obviously, and the guys were a little too touchy-feely, so she couldn't hang around and continue hanging out with them, even if she might still be able to race.

Maybe that's what she should do; become a professional motorcycle racer, or maybe a stuntwoman. That might be fun.

Rogue reached for her bear and hugged it close. At least she had succeeded in containing her voices. Her head didn't feel anywhere near as crowded as it did before she got the 'cure'.

"That's right," she said to herself. "It doesn't, does it?"

If she could control her voices, why couldn't she learn to control the rest of her powers as well?

"Well," Rogue said, lifting her teddy bear to eye level, "doesn't hurt to try, right?"

* * *

Rogue had no idea where to even start. First and foremost was the fact that she hadn't noticed absorbing the new psyche in the first place. If she didn't notice when she was absorbing anyone, how could she stop herself from doing it? She decided that the best bet for now was to play it by ear and try to work on her psyche awareness so that she'd know when she was absorbing someone.

A week passed before Rogue had another incident. Fortunately, there weren't so many other people around and she heard her new voice as soon as contact was broken. While Rogue was irritated she didn't notice immediately, she was glad she was able to box off the new voice straight away.

The third absorption happened only four days later. This time Rogue noticed immediately as she actually picked up the handshake from his perspective as well. However, she wasn't entirely certain if she shut the absorption off, or if her power shut itself off.

From that point onwards Rogue decided to become more proactive about this. She started paying extra special attention to every form of skin contact she had. To begin with it was more likely nothing would happen than her absorption would kick in, however as time went by the opposite became true. She started picking up more that their immediate thoughts too, and her subjects began having brief moments of disorientation and dizziness.

Before Rogue could begin feeling anxious about putting anyone into comas, however, she began to make progress. Little things at first that she didn't realise were successes until after the fact, like the time she absorbed her fellow waitress Kathy, but managed to shut it off even though contact was maintained. She also noticed that although Joss touched her a lot, she'd never absorbed him. Joss was probably on her list of last people she wanted to absorb and Rogue decided that this aversion was working in her favour.

By this point, Rogue was on her fourth notebook and she kept careful track of every single use of her power. Some months after the first incidence of absorption, Rogue realised that her incident rate was going down again. She hadn't even needed to resort to covering up again. This revelation made Rogue giddy with excitement and she celebrated her growing control with a trip to Six Flags and a lot of fairy floss.

* * *

It was 2:35am and he was the only customer in the diner. The cook on duty, Jared, was on his own in the kitchen, doing... whatever it was he did at this time of night. Rogue eyed the customer while she waited, feeling a little like a predator watching her prey. The fact of the matter was that she couldn't learn to control her power unless she had people to practice on, and there wasn't a more tempting target than customers who came in during the beginning of her shift. They were alone and no one would ever see her do anything. Any dizzy spells or comas (although no one had fallen into a coma yet) could be easily covered up.

The man noticed her watching him and she sauntered over under the guise of seeing if he wanted anything. Judging from the expression on his face, he'd interpreted her look as meaning something entirely different.

"Anything else I can getcha?" she asked, all the while wondering if she should actually go through with this; she hadn't deliberately tried to absorb someone yet.

"No, I'm right thanks," he replied. "So, uhh, do you get off soon?"

"'Fraid not, sugar," Rogue said. "My shift just started half an hour ago."

Inevitably, Rogue left the table again and came back a few moments later with the bill. She slid the little black tray onto the table and reached over to take the plate, deliberately grazing his hand in the process and allowing her power to kick in.

Her ability to absorb people must not have been quite back in full working order just yet, Rogue decided, for she wasn't getting flooded with thoughts and memories at the same rate as she remembered. The thoughts she did get amused her though; he was thinking about her, the food, paying and how he would have to get going. She grunted a little as she shut off her powers; he'd been a little too focused on her cleavage in her opinion, although in fairness she did have to concede that it had been a little in his face when she leaned over. The man shook his head, feeling disoriented and Rogue pretended not to notice.

After the man paid and left (Rogue was happy with the nice tip he'd left her), she contemplated the results of her experiment. She wished she had her notebook with her, but as it was still at home, she resorted to jotting down her thoughts on a piece of scrap paper intended for the phone.

Two thoughts in particular occurred to her. First, the slow absorption: Was absorption rate something she could control, or was it something that would be dictated to her? Second, what she picked up; again, was this something she could control, or would it be random?

It was then that Rogue realised that no lone customer would be safe on her shift. She thought she should probably feel guilty about using customers for guinea pigs, and she didn't know if she should be concerned that she didn't.

* * *

"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Ro-ogue! Happy Birthday to you!"

Rogue laughed as all her friends at Tony's Bar sang completely out of tune.

"First round of drinks is on Rogue!" Gary declared.

"Thanks a lot," Rogue said, pulling a face at him.

"Hey, we've been buying you drinks for years. You're legal now; it's your turn."

"Any excuse! You just want a free beer."

"Guilty as charged."

Rogue laughed again, but was happy to buy the first round of drinks. At twenty-one, she was rather pleased with how things were going. Sure, she wasn't exactly where she would like to be in her life right now; she still considered her best friend to be her teddy bear, and she wasn't making nearly as much money as she wanted to; but she did still have people she enjoyed spending time with and her power was turning out to be a gift rather than a curse after all. Life was good.

In the midst of the celebration, however, one set of eyes glared at her from across the room: Niel. Rogue pretended not to notice, having no intention of letting him ruin her birthday. She'd have to do something about him sooner or later, but not today.

* * *

"All right," Rogue said, addressing her bear where it sat on the table and putting down her pen. "After thirty deliberate absorptions, I've learned the following. One, if I absorb someone fast, anything I get from them is random. The slower the absorption rate, the easier it is to pick and choose what I get from them. Two, the faster the rate of absorption, the more likely they are to end up in a coma."

Rogue took a moment to digest that. It wasn't like she wanted to put anyone in a coma, but fortunately the few comas she'd been responsible for had been short-lived. She was a lot more careful after that, not wanting to attract any attention to herself, but also honestly not wanting to put anyone into a coma.

"Of course," she went on. "I can also put someone into a coma at a slower rate of absorption, it just takes longer. Three, I'm more likely to get whatever they're thinking about first. Four, well, four is kinda inferred for the first three; if I go looking for specific information that isn't at the front of their mind, I need a way to cover up any dizziness or period of unconsciousness that follows."

Rogue considered for a moment and glanced over her notes.

"Five, it's possible to determine length of coma by the amount of life force absorbed. Six, there's been a distinct lack of mutant subjects. I will need to remedy this, given that I cam imprint powers, and plus I'm not sure if anything else is different. As far as baseline humans are concerned, I think I've pretty much covered everything. Oh, and six, if my power hasn't returned to full strength yet, it must be close."

She tapped her fingers on the table for a few moments, then stood and began to pace.

"I think," she said to herself, "that I need to... to... I think I need a project. A test. So far I've just been doing random experiments on random people with no goal other than exploration. Well, and learning control of course. Soooo nice to have control."

Impulsively she hugged her bear.

"And to think for a while there I was thinking I'd never get control, ever. I sure proved me wrong," she said and giggled to herself. "But yes, a project. I need something specific to accomplish, not just to prove I have control, but also to demonstrate that... that... that what? To demonstrate what I've learned, that it can be put to practical use, that I can... can... can absorb someone and get away with it."

Rogue scrunched up her face in her struggle to put into words what she was feeling about the matter.

"A project will... will show me not only what I've learned but also show me any areas where I may need work that I haven't realised in my experimentation," she said triumphantly. "Okay, so... what project?"

She got her answer the following Saturday night; Niel. She would rid herself of the problem that was Niel. When she arrived home from the races, there was no way she could sleep straight away. She was too busy figuring out how she was going to go about it. Not only how she was going to absorb him and cover it up, but also what she was going to be looking for in his head.

* * *

It was Friday night and normally Rogue would be at home sleeping at this hour, but she had arranged to have the morning off work. Thus, it was quite a pleasant surprise to the guys when she showed up at Tony's Bar.

"Don't you have work tomorrow?" asked Frank.

"Nah, I'm chucking a sickie," Rogue replied with a wave of her hand.

"I approve," said Joss.

"I don't doubt it."

Rogue chatted merrily with her riding buddies for a time. Eventually Niel arrived at the bar. Out of the corner of her eye she kept a close eye on him, noting how much he drank. After a couple of bottles, Rogue excused herself from her friends and bought a couple of bottles of beer from the bar. She then sauntered over to Niel.

"Beer?" she inquired, holding out the unopened bottle.

"Don't mind if I do," he replied, eyeing her sceptically as he took it.

"I figure it's time we let bygone be bygones," she said smoothly as she opened her own bottle. "Truce?"

Niel gave a non-committal grunt and Rogue didn't push it. Instead she began to flirt (and ignored Joss getting angrier and angrier at the other end of the room) and pretended to like it when Niel put his hands on her. At one point she went back to get more drinks and this was when things got interesting. In her pocket, Rogue was carrying a small dose of syrup of ipecac. It had been hard enough to obtain, and she was a little nervous about using it for all the reasons it was hard to obtain and the fact that she wasn't entirely certain that mixing it with alcohol was really a very good idea. Using Kitty's power, Rogue phased the dosage into the beer she planned on giving Niel and prayed that was she was doing wasn't going to kill him or anything. A thief she would admit to, but she had no intentions of becoming a murderer.

Rogue headed back to Niel and gave him the second beer. While he drank she gave all the signs of having drunk a little too much herself and succeeded in luring Niel into the mens. Evidentially Niel was thrilled at the prospect of getting to have his way with the young woman, however as soon as the door was locked behind them, Rogue's kiss became deadly.

Rogue figured that a man with his violent temper and tendencies would probably have something criminal in his past to atone for and Rogue was not disappointed. Once she got past all the nasty little sexual fantasies he had about her in the front of his mind, she found a series of violent and abusive acts. He'd abused all his girlfriends, beaten his wife to death, run other people who had angered him off the road and by the time Rogue pulled away she felt like her head was swimming with it all. She positioned Niel over the toilet in preparation for his expected bout of vomiting, fished his phone from his pocket and dialled the police.

"Hi," she said. "I understand there's a warrant out for the arrest of one Niel Smith for the murder of Rachel Smith? Yeah, I know where he lives."

After leaving her anonymous tip, Rogue hung up and put the phone back in her pocket. She then took out his wallet and liberated his cash before putting his wallet back. As if on cue, Niel threw up (Rogue was somewhat relieved about that) and she checked to make sure he wasn't going to choke on his own vomit (he was unconscious after all). Pleased that it had gone down all right, Rogue filed Niel neatly away in her mind, straightened her clothes and waltzed back out into the bar. She ignored Niel's friends and headed straight to her own.

"What the hell?" Joss demanded of her, pulling free of Owen's grip. "Rogue! You hate that guy!"

Rogue couldn't hide the smirk while Joss ranted on about how could she bang Niel, when she was always turning him down. Rogue silenced him by kissing him.

"Yep, just what I thought," she said as she pulled away. "You're definitely the better kisser. By the way, Niel? So can't hold his liquor."

Her smirk became wider as she sat back down at the table, leaned back on her chair and pulled out the notes she'd stolen from Niel.

"Whaddya say boys?" she asked. "Next round's on Niel."

"Are you whoring yourself out now, Rogue?" asked Carlos. "Because in that case -"

"Don't insult me," Rogue said, in far too good a mood to snap at him like she might have normally. "I just slipped a little something into his drink and took a little something to remember him by."

Owen started laughing. "And that's why you never get on Rogue's bad side."

* * *

**AN: **Just the epilogue to go... it's like a tradition, hahaha.


	5. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

It was a sunny Monday morning in June and Rogue was busy waiting tables at the diner like always. As far as she could tell, her powers had finally come back completely just a couple of months ago. Unlike the first time around, however, she could actually touch people with confidence that she wouldn't absorb anyone unless she chose to, and it was an exhilarating feeling. Niel had been arrested at his home the day following Rogue's absorption of his person, and that was the last she'd heard of him. Rogue was rather smug about that.

While Rogue delivered breakfast to one of her tables, she noticed a newcomer with chin-length brown hair enter the diner and sit down at an empty table in her section. He wore dark sunglasses, a brown trench coat, a fuchsia dress shirt, black pants and a pair of leather motorcycle boots. She'd deliver the next order and then go to take his, she decided, that would give him time to look over the menu.

Rogue turned to head towards the counter and she could already see Lisa ogling him. No doubt she'd hear about how hot he was and how lucky she was to have such a sexy guy in her section. Fortunately, Lisa was busy when she arrived to pick up the next order and succeeded in delaying hearing Lisa's gushing.

Rogue delivered the order and glanced over at the newcomer's table; he'd put the menu down and was waiting, as she had expected. She pulled out her notepad and pen as she approached and snickered to herself as she noticed him look her over. These guys in the dark sunglasses always seemed to forget that just because no one can see their eyes, doesn't mean no one can see what direction their head is facing.

"Mornin' sugar," she said. "Ready to order?"

"I'll have the big breakfast, with the waffles and orange juice and a coffee," he replied and Rogue caught the tilt of his head as he looked down slightly. "Marie."

Rogue smirked slightly as she wrote down his order. He'd definitely just checked out her chest. Tight uniform shirts for the win - and by win, she meant good tips.

"No problem," she replied.

* * *

**End!**

Of course it had to end with a glimpse of **I Make Men Weak at the Knees**, hehehehe.

Anyway, I enjoyed writing this story. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it, and thanks as always to all my lovely reviewers. You sure know how to make my day :D

Next story will be **King of Thieves**. No ETA at this time, though.


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